How Scott Adkins’ Latest Movie ‘Max Cloud’ Mocks ’90s Action Heroes
Scott Adkins has carved a path for himself as a modern action hero. Movies like the Undisputed sequels, Ninja, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Close Range, Avengement, Accident Man and the Debt Collector films show Adkins’ greatest moves. Showbiz Cheat Sheet has recently caught up with Adkins for Ip Man: The Finale, Debt Collectors and now Max Cloud.
Max Cloud is a bit of a lighter, more comedic role for Adkins. He plays the main character in a ’90s video game. Gamer Sarah (Isabelle Allen) gets a chance to meet Max when she goes into the video game. Adkins spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet by Zoom about Max Cloud, which is on VOD now.
Scott Adkins made Max Cloud a big dumb American
Adkins has mastered accents. He can play all American in the Ninja and other films, or eastern European as Boyka or the villain of Brothers Grimsby. Max Cloud had to be an exaggerated American.
“He’s the stereotypical 90s action hero so he had to be an American, didn’t he?” Adkins said. “In the ‘90s, the villains were English and the heroes were American.”
When Showbiz Cheat Sheet pointed out Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adkins conceded the exceptions.
“You’re right,” Adkins said. “You got me there, dammit. I should’ve done it with a Flemmish accent.”
Max Cloud wears a flamboyant costume too
Superhero movies were in their infancy in the ’90s. Batman had his batsuit, but it seemed like new superheroes had to wear spandex. So Adkins squeezed himself into Max Cloud’s costume too.
“God, it was hard to get on,” Adkins said. “I certainly had to have some help. First thing in the morning, December, Yorkshire, cold, getting into that cold trailer and the costume ladies would come out and try to wrestle me into this basically wetsuit that was tighter than any wetsuit needed to be. But once it was on, you had to keep it on. You didn’t want to be going to the toilet.”
The martial arts were out of Scott Adkins’ fists
Max Cloud kicks like Sega Genesis games. Adkins credited the choreography to fight coordinator Andy Long. Adkins just did what he was told.
“The fight director, Andy Long was very smart about the way he did some of the action and getting inspired by the Street Fighter games and things like that,” Adkins said. “It’s a lot of fun the way we approached the action scenes in this movie, the different styles, almost like every fight is a different style, isn’t it?”
Long comes from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Of course, Max Cloud can’t get away with Jackie Chan fights, so they changed it up.
“I was happy just to do what he wanted me to do,” Adkins said. “He’s a great choreographer, great performer himself. Very much Jackie Chan style but obviously we did a different style for this movie, a computer game, but I just did as Andy said and very happy with what he created.”
